Multivitamin use may reduce men's cancer risk

Men who take a multivitamin supplement every day may benefit from a reduced risk of cancer, new research suggests.

Scientists at Brigham and Women's Hospital in the US studied nearly 15,000 over-50s, all of whom took a multivitamin or a placebo (dummy pill) every day for more than ten years.

The researchers found there were eight per cent fewer diagnoses of cancer among the men who took multivitamins than in the placebo group.

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Multivitamin use was also associated with a reduction in the number of deaths from cancer.

Study co-author Dr Howard Sesso, an associate epidemiologist in the hospital's division of preventive medicine, said: 'Many studies have suggested that eating a nutritious diet may reduce a man's risk of developing cancer.

'Now we know that taking a daily multivitamin, in addition to addressing vitamin and mineral deficiencies, may also be considered in the prevention of cancer in middle-aged and older men.'

The findings are published in the Journal of the American Medical Association and further studies are now planned to shed light on the specific vitamins or minerals that may be responsible for the protective effect.

Research is also needed to show whether multivitamins have the same impact on women and younger men.

There are two types of liver cancer, primary and secondary. Primary begins in the liver whereas secondary is caused by the spread of cancer...
Reviewed by
David Maxton
and Dr Jeff Butterworth, Gastroenterologist

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